In the telecommunications field it is standard practice to test cables. Common forms of testing include continuity, return loss (RL), time domain reflectometry (TDR), and distance-to-fault (DTF). The testing equipment is connected to only one end of the cable for many of these tests. For RL, TDR, and DTF testing, all of the energy in the test signal is reflected back to the test instrument, in the absence of a suitable termination on the opposite end of the cable. Moreover, cable discontinuities can cause multiple reflections to occur, which can cause the measurement data to be imprecise or harder to interpret in the presence of noise produced by the reflections. Accordingly, the opposite end of the cable must be terminated, with the characteristic or a preselected cable impedance, for the testing to be accurate and consistent. The termination should sufficiently absorb the energy of the test signal to provide accurate and precise measurements. The cable termination typically should provide a return loss of 20 decibels or better.
Current practice requires the installation of connectors on the cable to be tested and a separate termination device attached to one of the connectors. These connectors are expensive and time-consuming to install. As a result, cables are often not tested until installed/connectorized, or until the connectors are temporarily installed. Temporary installation of connectors is time consuming, especially because they are removed after testing. There are also situations in which the far end of the cable is not accessible, such as when wound on a spool, requiring the cable to be unspooled to access the far end of the cable.